Tablet Versus Textbook

Tablets vs. Textbooks

A Debate on Digital Culture in the Classroom.Rebecca Males

So…which students are we dealing with?

No more Millennials…• Millennials are now in between the ages of 18-33 years old (Pew, 2010)• We are dealing with a new generation attending school…

…what comes after Millennials?

Gosh. Information overload much?

Check this next slide…

“A magazine is a tablet that doesn’t work”

In the mind of (the young) Gen Z, magazines do not exist.

Nielsen did a bit of research on these techie toddlers.

Integrating technology & education isn’t exactly unheard of…

c. 1650: The Horn Book

…used for reading, copying, writing

c. 1870: The Magic Lantern

…used for reading, copying, writing

…used for reading, copying, writing

Nope. Still nothing new here.

The iPad is really part of evolution… and evolution is about to come full

circle.

Chalkboard apps…on a tablet.

Oh, the irony.

Not everyone believes in that integrating technology with education is beneficial

to our intelligence…

Nicholas Carr, ‘Is Google Making us Stupid?’

He believed companies such as Google & Apple, are essentially using human behavior to create

‘artificial intelligence’(Carr, 2008)

Why is this bad?And what is artificial intelligence?

“The faster we surf across the Web—the more links we click and pages we view—the more

opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements. Most of the proprietors of the commercial Internet have a financial stake in

collecting the crumbs of data we leave behind as we flit from link to link—the more crumbs, the better. The last thing these companies want is

to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought.

It’s in their economic interest to drive us to distraction.” (Carr, 2008)

So – Carr fears for our ability to read and write, as the web is “driving us to distraction”

Same old, same old.

Same old, same old.

Socrates didn’t like writing either.

‘The offsprings of painting stand there as if they are alive, but if anyone asks them anything, they remain most solemnly silent. The same is true of

written words.’

Socrates: Phaedrus

It’s not the first time scholars have feared change…

Hieronimo Squarciafico, Venetian Humanist, wasn’t the biggest fan of the printing press.

He believed “books would make men lazy”, as they substituted for stored knowledge in the mind.

“…as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it

is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence” (Carr 2008)

“The eyes only see what the mind is prepared to comprehend”

French Philosopher, Henri Bergson

Well, that’s certainly true for this techie toddler.

In that case..why are we using iPads in schools?

Let’s see.

The iPad Trials in Sydney(2011)

• 75 iPads deloyed into 3 primary schools• “experimental trial”• Teachers used video diaries, journals, student

Likert tests & an independent evaluator to judge student engagement

Hm.Brand, spanking new toys.

Children under 12.

How do you think that went?

Students said iPads were

more engagingand

easier to usethan conventional methods.

“…students would sit and constantly use the Times Table app to improve their

recall of multiplication facts, but would never devote the same time to a

worksheet”(Melanie, Teacher)

Ok, ok. We get it.So iPads get kids interested.

Obviously.

But…is it more effective for knowledge

retention than a pen & paper?

These guys tested it…

Granito & Chernobilksy (2012)

• 3 groups of students• Aged between 12 & 13 years old• Completed a project through Traditional means

(paper) or Technology based means (computer)

Students were then tested on how much information they had retained

after completing the project…

Wait. Remember this guy?

Technology = Substitute for Memory

So the kids on the computer, theoretically, should have lower scores than those using

paper, as they used the evil Google machine.

Nope!

Those using computer based methods retained more information.

Hang on… this was a rather narrow pool of participants.

Is there anyone else out there, testing this?

A few..

At a primary school in Auburn, Maine, children who used an iPad in class scored higher on a literacy test than those who

did not. (Dalrymple, 2012)

Students in the first class to receive iPads at the University of California scored an average

of 23% higher on national exams than in previous classes. (Comstock, 2013)

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in California showed that students using iPads saw their math test scores increase 20% in one year compared to

students using traditional textbooks. (Bonnington, 2012)

81% of adults agree that the Internet has enhanced human intelligence

(Pew Research Project, 2010)

Oh alright, you proved your point.

But how can we finance such a thing?Not everyone can afford iPads.

Things are a’changin’, my friend.

In June 2013, Acer won a bid to supply secondary schools in

Queensland with 14,000 Tablets, and in 2011 schools in Sydney had

already begun tablet trials.

In the USA, currently 80% of schools lack infrastructure to support digital

learning, so President Obama announced the ‘ConnectED program’, which aims to provide broadband for

99% of schools.

The Tablets for Schools initiative helps schools implement tablets for

research purposes in the UK, and 2014 has been

dubbed the Year of Code – computing is now a

mandatory subject in state schools.

However, we have a long way to go.

Luckily, there are campaigns like this..

=

And as supply & demand changes, mobile technology will become cheaper.

For now, we should prepare and equip this generation.

"You can't teach people everything they need to know.

The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when

they need to know it.”

– Seymour Papert,Computer Scientist & Educator

Today’s children have grown up with a different digital landscape than their teachers

and they are inspired and motivated by different technology.

(Jukes, 2008)

And that technology is evolving fast…there’s a world of experts out there willing

to help, and share their knowledge.

Even if it is on Twitter.

We are living in the Information Era, and we must teach children how to adapt to this from an early

age – that’s if they aren’t already teaching themselves.

Using tablets instead of

textbooks is the first step in

preparing our children to deal with this new

world.

Anderson, Janna & Rainie, Lee (2010) The Future of the Internet, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/02/19/future-of-the-internet-iv/

Granito, Mark and Chernobilsky, Ellina, "The Effect of Technology on a Student's Motivation and Knowledge Retention" (2012). NERA Conference Proceedings 2012. Paper 17.http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/nera_2012/17

Bonnington, Christina. (2012) iPad a solid education tool, study shows http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/23/tech/innovation/ipad-solid-education-tool

Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic.com. July/August 2008. 19 August 2008. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200807/google Comstock, Jonah (2013) iPad equipped medical school class scores 23% higher on exams http://mobihealthnews.com/20311/ipad-equipped-medical-school-class-scores-23-percent-higher-on-exams/

Dalryple, Jim (2012) iPad improves Kindergartners Literacy Skills, The Loop. http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/02/17/ipad-improves-kindergartners-literacy-scores/

Generation Z, (2014). Home - Generation Z. [online] Available at: http://generationz.com.au [Accessed 6 Jun. 2014].

Goodwin, Kirsty (2012). Use of Tablet Technology in the Classroom. NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre [http://clic.det.nsw.edu.au/clic/documents/iPad_Evaluation_Sydney_Region_exec_summary.pdf]

Jukes, I. (2008). Understanding digital kids (Dks): Teaching and learning in the new digital landscape. Retrieved November 19, 2009, from http://www.hmleague.org/Digital%20Kids.pdf

Nielsen.com, (2014). American Families See Tablets as Playmate, Teacher and Babysitter. [online] Available at: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2012/american-families-see-tablets-as-playmate-teacher-and-babysitter.html [Accessed 9 Jun. 2014].

Taylor, Paul, and Keeter, Scott (eds) (2010) Millenials: A Portrait of Generation Next, Pew Research Center http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2010/10/millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change.pdf